ORANGE SQUEEZIN'S
 Orange Barbershop QUARTET Chapter, FWD, Orange, California April, 2006
MEETING EVERY MONDAY 7:30 P.M.- COME SING WITH US UNTIL 10 P.M.
Afterglow, Denny's Restaurant, 3000 W Chapman between the 57 and 5 fwys Two New Leads By Stanley Tinkle Nowadays life spins past us like a carousel. We watch the Mondays fly by, but until we hop on board, we never have a chance to grab the brass ring. Last night, while I was singing tenor with Sean, that thought came to mind. I rarely miss a Monday meeting, but two weeks ago, I had laryngitis. So rather than watch the other guys have all the fun, I iced the drinks and took my germs home early. Last night, my voice was back and so was I at six p.m. sharp, as ready as a kid in a candy store. In walked two young and enthusiastic lead singers, and we all lined up to sing with them. Dave Loare now has his BHS certificate, suitable for framing, and is learning songs as fast as he can turn the pages. Dave is our second-newest member. Look for him; he’s a rock singer with a moustache, pony tail and a phantom sign on his chest that says, “Ask me to sing!” Dave joins Rich Spencer, Gary Phillips and our other eager beaver leads who will quartet at the drop of a pitch pipe. The rest of us scramble to learn alternate parts to “Coney Island Baby”, “Hello Mary Lou” and “Chicago Town”, so as to not miss all the opportunities. The other enthusiastic young lead who walked in at 6 p.m. was Sean Devine. He had shown up last week after I had left and was looking for a chance to quartet and maybe learn some Barber Pole Songs. Last night Sean sang with a variety of foursomes; he even sight-read the tenor part when necessary. So President Michael Werner took his ten dollars and declared that Sean had passed the voice test and is now our newest member. You may have heard of Sean’s quartet. OC Times are the FWD Champions. They also won the Reno contest this month, and now their new CD, OC Times, Live from the contest stage, is out. They are selling it as a fund raiser to help send the Westminster Chorus to the Internationals this summer. So if you missed the Monday meeting you missed a chance to snatch up a few copies at a bargain price. But don’t lose heart; surely there will be other opportunities. And if you’re a doo wop enthusiast, you may already be aware that Sean sings with America’s premier doo wop quartet, The Alley Cats. At the glow, Phil Roth and Wes Reed and Bob Calderwood and I were suddenly confronted by the Barber Pole, so in desperation we sang “The San Francisco Bay Blues”. Sean applauded, so wily Phil suggested Indigo Superlite sing “Mood Indigo” with Sean sight-reading the tenor part and Michael Werner on bass. Mark my words; Sean Devine shows real promise. He always sings “in the zone”. On top of that, he likes loud baritones. Another feature of our Monday meetings is the pocket singing lesson that our VP Music Paul Gutierrez slips into our warm-ups. Last night we bumblebeed and did the loo loo fourpart for a few moments. Maybe that’s why I was able to sing full bore all evening. More news is about to break. Grab the brass ring, and you’ll become part of it!
Orange Town Four Activity Report
Once in a while you've gotta toot your own horn.
Since I've sung lead in various configurations of The Orange Town Four for lots of years, I think I'll give a few toots.
In the first place, we don't profess to be anything but a Barbershop Quartet. We sing barbershop songs in a barbershop manner (mostly loud, but on key) and dress the part on singouts. Our audiences know right away that they are going to stay awake while we're singing, and we receive very kind words when we finish. They have fun, and we have fun. I believe that's what this hobby is about.
Our present four faces are as follows:
Phil Wortman, tenor (a very capable four-part man)
There you have it. We're all very qualified quartet men and have been for years, but we are not contest oriented, nor will we ever be. Not with this lead, at least. Singouts, we do varying amounts during the year, but collectively, a lot. Many times while our friends are watching games or other trivia on the tube, we're out singing around the Plaza, paid sings for parties, birthdays--you name it, we've done it. Oftimes for free if they offer to hug us. Age, no problem.
Frankly, this diatribe is prompted by some recent doings that most of our members don't know about, or maybe care. Most recently our Chapter was invited to the South Bay Chapter "Saint Patrick Day Bash" held on Wednesday night, March 15th. Several of our guys attended and joined in the fun of singing in South Bay's version of a contest. The "Orange Town Four" won the song contest again. We did it last year, too! And the year before, we think??? Anyhow, first prize is a bottle of "Old Bushmills," an Irish Whiskey. Don Engel likes the stuff, I go yuk, and the other guys think hot tea is like WHEE!! Guess who gets the Bushmills. Anyhow, the next Monday night the announcements contained details on every crummy detail on upcoming shows, contests, sprained ankles, ad infinitum. Any horray for the O.T.4? Nope. Do we need it? Nope. We'll probably beat your fannies next year, too.
Next case, Singing Valentines. We were acknowledged twice at Chapter for those. Number one, for singing around the Plaza and placing the tent ads in businesses. Quite a few hours there. Number two, the OT4 sang all three days of the sings, with a total of 30 Valentines. On Sunday and Monday, we were the only 4tet working. Too, we turned in over 10% of the paid Valentines. Did we enjoy it? Yes.
Well, I felt some stuff in my system that I needed to vent. Too, some members think Monday is all there is to our hobby. T'aint so!
Song-Filled Meetings
What a fun chapter! If you have not been coming to the chapter meetings lately, you've been missing a lot of fun. The quality of the singing has improved. You can expect to be singing with guys that can carry their part. For a while that was not true, but the quality of singers that come to the chapter now has improved. Many of them are new members that never sang B'Shop before. You've got to come down and sing with them. And a large percentage of them come at 6 pm.
You have to come and enjoy all the singing. There is no end to the fun. There is a lot of woodshedding going on and the hall is filled with songs and tags. Afterwards we go to Denny's and sing till... well, until we want to quit. Denny's treats us like kings and lets us sing as long as we want. If you like to sing in a quartet, you will never have a better time to come to the Orange Quartet Chapter meetings. Come on down and bring a friend that can sing and hold his own.
Spring Happenings
Far Western District Champions Hi-Fidelity blew away all other competitors to win the LA Harmony Sweepstakes in Hermosa Beach.
The Whittier Chapter presents its 56th Annual Show, BARBERSHOP AMERICANA,
Saturday, April 22, at 3:00 pm La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts
The OC Times has a brand new CD http://www.octimesquartet.com.
The Fullerton Chapter show date is Saturday, April 22, at Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton at Chapman and Lemon (matinee and evening show). The theatrical musical production is "Showboat Shenanigans," the story of Mark Twain's return to Hannibal Missouri and life on the Mississippi River. Fullerton Chapter Afterglow and Quartet Reunion April 22nd after the Annual Show at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel following the evening show at about 10:15 pm.
Westminster Chapter 45th Annual Novice Quartet Contest for Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada, Saturday, April 15, at The Huntington Beach Library Theater
Show Me Your Song List
Back in the Antebellum Days—you know, when your Auntie was the Belle of the Ball—young ladies took fancy dance cards to cotillions. If your male ancestor hoped to dance with Scarlett, he asked her in advance to write his name down for at least one dance. You know, “Darling, save the last dance for me!” Obviously, the system worked, because I see you’re here today. So am I, come to think of it. We owe a lot to dance cards.
Hoping to avoid looking like doofuses, a quartet on a gig prepares a little card that lists their best songs, prior to the performance. They often write down the title, the key, and the first few words of each song. This allows their performance to flow uninterrupted from start to finish. It’s a great idea.
Some of us have personal song lists. I know a certain curmudgeonly fellow who has a couple of small cards which list the songs he is willing to consider singing with friends, or with probationary acquaintances, and maybe even with strangers. It saves him a lot of shouting, gesticulating, apoplexy … and time. Time, as we know, is money. Why throw it away?
So a stranger tells him, “Hi. I’m Chumly Chalmers, and I’m a bass. Let’s sing a song.”
Our friend says, “Glad to meet you, Chalmers. I’m Curly Mudge. Here’s my song list. Take your pick.”
Chumly scans it and wisely skips over the tough songs (“The Bear in Tennis Shoes”), the wordy ones (“I’m My Own Grandpa”), the in-your-face ones (“You’re Nobody’s Sweetheart Now”), and the doormat ballads (“Last Night Was the End of the World!”). He settles on two of my own personal favorites (“Sweet and Lovely” and “On Moonlight Bay”), and off they go. Time elapsed: ten seconds.
You may surmise that my friend is a lead singer. That is an understandable presumption,
because obviously a lead can’t “wing it”. If he doesn’t know a given song, he’ll have a lively time trying to woodshed it. But the song list concept applies to everyone, because a personal list helps us all remember those songs we don’t get to sing every day (“Heart of a Clown”, “Oh, Canada!”, “Maggie”, and “She Was Only a Stable boy’s Daughter”). Well, you’d better ignore that last song; it was an attempt at levity. You can replace it with “Run for the Roundhouse, Nellie!” Singers who are new to barbershop will be especially glad to peruse your song list; hoping it contains the one Barber Pole Song they have mastered so far.
Chorus chapters feel a need to replace many of their repertoire songs every year, but many quarteters prefer to revisit their early singing favorites over and over. Because I’ve forgotten many of the song titles I used to love, I’ll share with you the song list that I now show to strangers. It is my comprehensive list of all the songs I can sing as a lead. Now, because my range is Baja Bari plus Wedgie Tenor, the only songs I can perform as lead are either in the key of A flat or in A natural. Here is my unexpurgated song list:
Stan’s Lead Gig Song List (Ahem):
“Heart of my Heart”. A flat. Heart of my heart, I love…etc.
Elapsed time: thirty seconds. Hey, I wasn’t reading it. You were. But that’s my song list. Please don’t spread it around. I prefer to keep it under my hat, or in my wallet.
Barbershop Survey
For a while now I've been wondering about the two questions:
1) What is the dominant singing level of our choruses and
In the survey at http://www.spebsqsafwd.org/html/cksurvey.html I ask these
two questions.
You can see the status of the survey at any time at
http://www.spebsqsafwd.org/html/CKSurveyResults.cfm.
Feel free to join in, but please respond only once.
Keith Eckhardt
50 Years of Harmony
In 1998 the Far Western District published the book "50 Years of Harmony" as a paper document. This past week David Melville of the Greater Phoenix
Chapter extracted it from his archives, updated it and provided it online at
http://www.spebsqsafwd.org/historybook/index.html.
(Editor's Note: In Chapter 9 of this history, page 66, this event is listed in 1991: "A new chapter in Orange, California, was being formed with more emphasis on quartets and fun and less on chorus and competition.")
April Showers
Before Al Jolson (1886-1950) made history in the first talking picture "The Jazz Singer" in 1927, he worked in vaudeville and on Broadway. "April Showers" was written for Jolson for the Broadway musical "Bombo" which took the stage in 1921. Songwriter B. G. (Buddy/George) DeSylva (1895-1950) had already been working with lyricist Lew Brown and composer Ray Henderson, producing hits like "The Birth of the Blues" and "Button Up Your Overcoat." But in 1921, DeSylva teamed with composer Louis Silvers (1889-1954) to write "April Showers," one of the many hits for Jolson from that show. The lilting ballad had staying power, recorded by Jolson in 1946 for "The Al Jolson Story," used as a theme for the Kraft Music Hall in 1947, and serving as the centerpiece in 1948 for the film "April Showers" (supposedly based on the life of Buster Keaton) starring Ann Southern and Jack Carson.
APRIL SHOWERS
Life is not a highway strewn with flowers,
Though April showers may come your way,
And when you see clouds upon the hills,
Taxes: Paid With Pleasure
Dear Internal Revenue Service,
Enclosed you will find my 2005 tax return showing that I owe you $3,407.00 in taxes. Please note the attached article from USA Today newspaper dated 12 November, wherein you will see that the Pentagon (Department of Defense) is paying $171.50 per hammer and NASA has paid $600.00 per toilet seat.
I am enclosing four (4) toilet seats valued at $2,400.00 and six (6) hammers valued at $1,029.00 which I secured at Home Depot, bringing my total remittance to $3,429.00. Please apply the overpayment of $22.00 to the "Presidential Election Fund" as noted on my return. You can do this inexpensively by sending them one (1) 1.5 in. Phillips Head Screw (see an aforementioned article from USA Today newspaper detailing how HUD pays $22 for each 1.5 in. Phillips Head Screw). One screw is enclosed for your convenience.
It has been a pleasure to pay my tax bill this year, and I look forward to paying it again next year.
Sincerely,
Next Issue
Target publication date for the next Squeezins' bulletin is May 1-15 or whenever we get enough articles. Send your articles to Editor at dcacton@earthlink.net.
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